1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coordinate data converting device for converting coordinate data generated by a CAD system or an NC system into predetermined coordinate data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a program for performing a part mounting process had to be incorporated into a part mounting device beforehand in order to automatically mount electronic parts (simply referred to as parts hereinafter) on a circuit board (simply referred to as a board hereinafter) by driving the part mounting device. For the program incorporation, at least the data such as the name of a part to be mounted, the mounting position coordinate on a board, the orientation of the part to be mounted on the board, etc. are required for each board on which parts are mounted, and a program including these pieces of data must be generated beforehand and stored in the part mounting device.
If coordinate data or part names are manually input while inspecting a board design or a part list obtained from the board design, etc., there is a great possibility that inputs are erroneously made. Accordingly, the coordinate data generated by a CAD system or an NC system is frequently used by being automatically captured and converted into coordinate data of a local system.
If the system or the type (maker) of the CAD or the NC that generates the coordinate data handled at this time is different, the format, the unit, the coordinate system, the offset value, etc. of the data forming the coordinate data are different. Therefore, the coordinate data cannot be used as data in a common format as it is. For example, as a system which generates a program for mounting parts or generates coordinate data for the program, an MS-DOS system, an OS-9 system, a UNIX system, a general-purpose computer (mainframe CAD) system, etc. are generally used. These systems differ from a CAD system or an NC system which simply generates coordinate data on a design drawing.
For a board design, the machine type of a CAD or an NC to be used for a design may frequently differ depending on a design department even within a company. Needless to say, a design system or a machine type can be hardly unified if a design is externally ordered. Additionally, if a new type of a CAD or NC machine is put on the market, or if a CAD machine or an NC machine is introduced from a new maker, systems and machine types may be mixed up.
When a program for running a part mounting device is generated based on design data (coordinate data) in a manufacturing department of the part mounting device, a dedicated conversion process program which makes a one-to-one correspondence with each design data of a CAD machine or an NC machine of a different type is generated each time; the coordinate data is converted into the coordinate data of a local system by using the program; and the program of the part mounting device is generated, in order to allow the program to be used with the processing system of the part mounting device.
However, if an exclusive conversion program which makes a one-to-one correspondence with each coordinate data to be handled is generated by the manufacturing department of the part mounting device each time and the coordinate data is converted as described above, it requires a considerable amount of time to generate the conversion process program, and the efficiency of the vital generation of the program for mounting parts decreases. As a result, there is the problem that the progress of operations until completion/shipment of the part mounting device is delayed and the delivery is apt to be late.
Furthermore, an unsatisfactory situation where a high generation cost of such an exclusive conversion program is charged to a client may often occur.